OCA A took a giant stride away from the relegation zone in division one of the Chelmsford & District Table Tennis League by beating Chelmsford C 8-2, their first win of the Season.  New signing Matthew Mulley and his equally hard-hitting brother Mark won their six singles and Robert Burton contributed a useful 8-11, 11-6, 8-11, 11-8, 11-8 win over Mark Allaway. Matthew Mulley was clearly on good form beating Simon Jarvis, Cristian Bernardo and Mark Allaway all 3-0. They now have a healthy 32 points. Writtle A moved into second place by beating Danbury A 6-4. Duncan Taylor was undefeated and Lee McHugh won twice, although he missed out 5-11, 11-9, 6-11, 16-18 to Bruce Kettle.  Chelmsford A with 55 points out of a possible 70 are heavy favourites to capture the title. James Liddiard (15 wins out of 15) and Gary Young (16 wins out of 18) led the way as they defeated Danbury B 9-1. Sam Lowman was on target for Danbury with a fine 12-10, 5-11, 11-6, 11-9 win over Daniel Young.       

Chelmsford D are the new leaders in division two. Saul Chivers (three wins), Sudheep Kamma (two wins) and Vineeth Kamma (three wins) powered to a 9-1 victory over Writtle B. Peter Layzel beat Sudheep Kamma 2-11, 15-13, 7-11, 11-9, 11-9 whilst Saul Chivers had to dig deep to get the better  of Trevor Collin 8-11, 8-11, 11-3, 11-3, 11-8. Hatfield Peverel A ran out 7-3 winners against a two- man Danbury D. Danbury’s Chris Buer impressed again, beating Martin Archie (11-9, 11-6, 11-8), Gareth Davies (11-5, 7-11, 11-8, 11-8) and Neil Freeman (10-12, 11-4, 14-16, 11-4, 11-5). The match between Danbury E and Writtle C was a hard-fought affair which finished tied at 5-5. The inform Gary Ward (17 wins out of 18) was again undefeated and he fought back from 2-0 down to get the better of Neil Want 5-11, 5-11, 11-7, 11-6, 11-7.  

Second placed Galleywood B were convincing 10-0 winners over Chelmsford F in division three. The very strong team of James Hicks, Gary Copsey and John Holland carried all before them. However, they will lose the services of James Hicks who is now tied to the Galleywood A team in division one.  Writtle D scored their first win of the Season – an impressive 8-2 victory over Hatfield Peverel B. Dave Carter led the way with three victories which included a fine 14-12, 11-8, 11-4 win over Paul Mulley.  It was “honours even” between Danbury J and Danbury K. Dave Marsh and David Meah both won twice for Danbury J whilst Nicky Reece Ford and Peter Hance both bagged two wins for Danbury K. Dave Marsh prevailed against Nicky Reece Ford, just, 5-11, 13-11, 11-4, 8-11, 11-9. OCA D did well to beat Chelmsford E 7-3. Richard Upson excelled. He defeated Adi Kamma (11-4, 8-11,11-7, 6-11, 11-3), Chris Young (11-7, 11-4, 12-10) and Joachin Mapes (11-6, 11-4, 11-9).

Division four produced three sets of clear-cut winners. Leaders Chelmsford H (Joachin Mapes, Nyree Marsh and Harry Chivers) powered their way past Maldon B 10-0. Nyree Marsh fought back from 2-0 down to get the better of Shirley Carroll 6-11, 4-11, 11-6, 11-8, 11-9. Writtle E were equally dominant. Ian Hockley, Dave Moles and Neil Thompson defeated OCA E 10-0. There were two close finishes and David Newman was on the wrong end of both of them. Neil Thompson beat Newman 11-8, 9-11, 4-11, 11-9, 12-10 whilst Ian Hockley defeated the unfortunate David Newman 11-3, 11-6, 9-11, 11-13, 13-11. Chelmsford G (Adam Hill, Dusan Doszkoty and Vasile Barbulet) were 9-1 winners against Highwood A. Melanie Bonnett came through in five hard-fought ends against Adam Hill (12-10, 13-15, 8-11, 11-8, 11-8).  

In contrast to division four division five produced four hard-fought matches. Buttsbury are top but they could only draw with Chelmsford J. Frances Hutt remained unbeaten and this included an odd looking 11-8, 1-11, 7-11, 12-10, 11-6 victory over Jacqui Smith. Hatfield Peverel E did well to beat Danbury M 7-3. Bob Hillis was unbeaten whilst Deb Ginn and Gary Simmons both won twice. Ken Wilding traded games with Deb Ginn before he claimed victory 11-8, 8-11, 3-11, 11-7, 11-9. Hatfield Peverel C led by a Mick Carter “full-house” beat Maldon C 6-4. Kym Eames won twice for Maldon but Mick Carter proved a step too far. Carter won this one 11-3, 11-9, 11-7.  Danbury N without a win to date did well to push OCA F before succumbing 6-4. Stuart Wintle was undefeated for the Old Boys whilst Bob Francis won twice. This included a quite bizarre looking 12-10, 16-14, 3-11, 2-11, 12-10 victory against Graham Naggs.    

Buttsbury Bees made it seven wins out of seven in division 1A of the Junior League. Ben Brown and Jamie Elliott over powered Chelmsford Tigers 5-0. Chelmsford Pumas (Oliver Cheung and Todd Martin) ran out 4-1 winners against Chelmsford Panthers, and although they won all four singles they lost the doubles 7-11, 11-9, 9-11, 6-11 to Harrison Hill and Richard Carter. Chelmsford Leopards are second and they beat Chelmsford Pumas 4-1. Cleon Fernandes was unbeaten.

Chelmsford Antelopes demonstrated just how far ahead of the opposition they are indivision 1C. They beat second-placed Chelmsford Cougars 5-0. Richard Carter and Arnav Kumar gave nothing away although Carter was pushed by Joshua Lewis before he won 11-7, 11-13, 11-8, 12-10. Buttsbury Bulldogs moved into third place with their 5-0 win over Chelmsford Eagles. Callum Walker and Adhuna Das carried all before them.   

League Cup Secretary – Matthew Brown has reported from the first round of Handicap Knock Out Cup matches. “The Cup competitions are underway.  With 22 teams entered, representing seven Clubs, there were six first round matches. As always, determining handicaps is a tricky business, not least because juniors in particular improve very quickly, and mixed in with closely fought matches were some very one-sided games”.

“The tightest match of the round was Chelmsford H versus Writtle E, where the juniors of Chelmsford H – Harry and Saul Chivers plus Joachin Mapes, just got the better of Writtle E’s established trio of Dave Moles, Ian Hockley and Malcolm Storey. Five of the nine games went to a deciding set but it was Harry’s rather more straightforward 21-15, 21-14 win over Malcolm that decided the tie in Chelmsford’s favour”.

“Writtle were also on the wrong end of the results card when their B team of Ryan Pitt, Rod Maclennan and Phil Smith lost 6-3 to Danbury G’s trio of Sanjay Saptarshi, Luca Bailey and Eamonn Hall. Unfortunately for Writtle their captain, Rod, had to retire at match point in his first game (all the other five players insisted!). Despite this set back Writtle did their best to give the Danbury team a run for their money, with Phil winning his three matches but Ryan was unable to support him, most notably losing 15-21, 21-17, 16-21 to Luca”.

“Chelmsford E, led by Dave Parker and with Adi Kamma and Chris Young alongside him, ran out 5-3 winners over Danbury H’s Richard Allen, Jean Chasmer and Dave Goody. There were two deciding set wins for Jean over Adi (17-21, 21-14, 18-21) and Chris (21-19, 25-27, 14-21) but two wins from each of Adi and Chris plus Dave Parker’s 21-19, 24-22 win over Dave Goody was enough to see the Chelmsford team through”.

“The youngsters of Buttsbury B were run away 8-1 winners over the division one team of Chelmsford C. A last gasp 18-21, 21-18, 18-21 win for Vasile Barbulet over Jamie Elliott was Chelmsford’s sole return for a night trying to play “catch up”. Oscar Hutt, Jacob Lawrence and Jamie Elliott used their handicaps to their best advantage to easily hold off Vasile, Mark Allaway and Simon Jarvis”.

“Another top division team playing in the handicap cup were the all-star Chelmsford A team of James Liddiard, Daniel Young and Gary Young. They found themselves playing the division five side of Danbury N (Graham Naggs, David Smith and Steve Martin). The results speak for themselves, the handicappers misjudged Danbury’s David Smith, who is more often seen at Melbourne’s Bat & Chat sessions and who won his three matches with ease (only once allowing the opposition to get back to zero). The two matches that Chelmsford did win were, as you would expect, by the tightest of margins, with Gary Young defeating Steve Martin 6-21, 21-19, 21-19 and James Liddiard getting the better of Graham Naggs 11-21, 22-20, 22-20”.

“The last of the first-round matches involved a third division one team – Danbury B’s Dan Anderson, Eric Green and Sam Lowman who got the better of Buttsbury A’s Joseph Hutt, Gary Carr and Frances Hutt. The sole junior for Buttsbury – Joseph Hutt, did his job with two straight sets wins over Eric and Dan but with mum Frances unable to win any of her three games and Gary Carr losing 17-21 in the deciding game to Eric Green, it was the Danbury team who prevailed 5-3”.

Steve Kerns / Press Officer / Chelmsford & District Table Tennis League